1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transmission position indicator which is provided around a gear shift lever in the passenger compartment of a vehicle to indicate a current position of a transmission of the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a transmission position indicator is provided on the cluster gauge and upper cover of the console in the passenger compartment of a vehicle. The transmission position indicator indicates the current position of the transmission of the vehicle. Drivers can easily discern the current position of the transmission using the transmission position indicators. Typically, the positions of an automatic transmission are designated by characters, such as P (parking), R (reverse), N (neutral), D (drive), + (higher gear) and − (lower gear). These gear indication characters are marked on the transmission position indicator. The transmission position indicator is configured such that the characters emit light.
In the daytime, even though the gear indication characters do not emit light, a driver can easily discern the position of the transmission using the position of a gear shift lever, so long as the gear shift lever is aligned with the desired gear indication character. Particularly, at night, the gear indication characters P, R, N, D, + and − emit light to enable the driver to discern the position of the transmission. Furthermore, for the sake of convenience of the driver, selected-gear indication marks which emit light may be provided to more clearly indicate the current position of the transmission.
Therefore, to emit light from the gear indication characters and the selected-gear indication marks, vehicle manufacturers must install light emitting units at positions adjacent to the respective gear indication characters and provide separate light emitting units around the respective selected-gear indication marks of the gear indication characters. Here, the selected-gear indication marks may be integrally provided with the transmission position indicator or, alternatively, they may be separately provided from the transmission position indicator. The following conventional technique shows the case where selected-gear indication marks are integrally provided with a transmission position indicator in such a way that the selected-gear indication marks are integrated with gear indication characters.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the conventional transmission position indicator for vehicles. FIG. 2 is a photograph showing a PCB of the transmission position indicator of FIG. 1.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional transmission position indicator includes a cover 10 and gear indication characters 20 (P,R,N,D, + and −) which are provided on the cover 10. The gear indication characters 20 emit light not only at night but also in the daytime. Furthermore, a gear indication character selected by the driver emits different color of light to distinguish the selected gear from other gears. For this, as shown in FIG. 2, two light emitting units 41a, 41b, 42a, 42b, 43a, 43b, 44a, 44b, 45a, 45b, 46a, 46b are provided on a PCB 30 around each gear indication character 20. The reason for this is that the basic six light emitting units for emitting light corresponding to the six gear indication characters 20 are required, and six separate light emitting units which emit different colors of light are required on the respective gear indication characters 20 to indicate the selected gear.
As such, in the conventional transmission position indicator, because at least two light emitting units are required on each gear indication character, a total of twelve light emitting units are required. Thereby, the production cost is increased. Furthermore, the size of the PCB is increased, thus resulting in the problem of restricting the total design of the indicator. Particularly, there is a recent trend to minimize the size of the transmission position indicator and use the remaining space as space for a cup holder or a separate reception space. To ensure the visibility of the position of the transmission even though the size of the transmission position indicator has been minimized, light emitting units for different colors of light are further required on each shift gear. However, a method of reducing the number of light emitting units and simplifying the PCB is required to enhance the freedom of the design.
It is to be understood that the foregoing description is provided to merely aid the understanding of the present invention, and does not mean that the present invention falls under the purview of the related art which was already known to those skilled in the art.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.